In honor of Earth Day in April, we will be holding 2 short films on Tuesday April 22, 2025. We will be showing Sun Come Up (2011, 38 minutes) from 2:30pm-3:10pm and That Which Once Was (2011, 20 minutes) from 3:20pm-3:40pm. Sun Come Up, an academy award nominated film that shows the human face of climate change. The film follows the relocation of the Carteret Islanders, a community living on a remote island chain in the South Pacific Ocean, and now, some of the world’s first environmental refugees. When climate change threatens their survival, the islanders face a painful decision. They must leave their ancestral land in search of a new place to call home. Sun Come Up follows a group of young islanders as they search for land in war-torn Bougainville, 50 miles across the open ocean. Sun Come Up provokes discussion about climate change, displacement, and the rights of vulnerable communities around the globe. Nominated for an academy award for best documentary short.
That Which Once Was is the story of an eight-year-old boy, displaced by global warming, fends for himself as an environmental refugee in a hostile metropolis. Haunted by memories of flooding that left him homeless and orphaned, the boy forms an unexpected bond with a mysterious Inuk ice carver from the Arctic (Natar Ungalaaq), who helps him confront his past. Heart-warming and visually stunning, That Which Once Was brings a human face to the climate crisis and celebrates how those who’ve experienced trauma can find hope and healing through friendship. Official Selection at the SXSW Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. That Which Once Was was the winner of Best Short Film at the Barcelona International Environmental Film Festival and winner of the Audience Award at ITVS-Futurestates Series.
Earth Day will be observed on Tuesday, April 22.
This year's theme is Our Power, Our Planet. As Earth Day marks its milestone 55th year, earthday.org celebrates a transformative reality: we already possess the solutions we need to create clean, inexpensive, and unlimited energy for the entire planet through renewable solar, wind, and other technologies.
Visit earthday.org for more information.
Earth Day History
April 22, 2020 marked the Fiftieth Anniversary of Earth Day. To commemorate this milestone, USA Facts, a not-for-profit, nonpartisan civic initiative published State of the Earth in Numbers, a data-driven portrait of America's energy, climate, and environment.
To celebrate the fiftieth annual Earth Day, The Greenbelt Conservancy created a Greenbelt YouTube Channel.
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